I read so many posts about long or inconsistent GPU run times along with other problems when crunching on all CPU cores at the same time as GPU crunching. When you have an open CPU core just to get faster times it's usually a CPU or I/O priority thing. CPU WUs from other projects tend to hog resources and CPU time. There are different ways to help correct this or at least improve it but the best and easiest so far is a app called Process Lasso. Get it here http://bitsum.com/prolasso.php. I used to use an app called Priority from http://www.efmer.eu/boinc/boinc_tasks/index.html (which also has Throttle and BoincTasks that are must haves if using Boinc. Priority is on the Throttle download page. It used to be part of Throttle) which works fine itself but Process Lasso does SO MUCH MORE including set I/O priorities and affinity on any process on your computer. You should be able to run all CPU cores at the same time now as well. It would take many paragraphs to tell you what it can do so just go to the web site and see for your self.

I used to get inconsistent times before learning that other CPU tasks weren't allowing continuous access to the CPU (due to low priority) but ever since I started using a base priority app, setting the GPU process apps (including Milky Way, Collatz, Primegrid, etc.) to above normal (some may need to set theirs to high), all times have been consistent for weeks (for same # stat and size WUs usually within seconds). As far as 2 or more GPUs on the same system this will help too but the other bugs involved may still keep you from your best times. I even ran a 5830 and a 4850 together with improvement a while back.

So give this a try first before doing drastic changes to settings or other things. It MIGHT save you some hassle. Report back to this thread (if) any improvements, so others can see how well it works (or doesn't) for you. Hope this helps a lot of people.

NeoMetal

Something else I should've mentioned. I came across a long thread somewhere else on the internet a while back and learned a lot about priority and coding. There are 2 different levels of priority. A base priority that is deep coded to not allow the other more higher surface level priorities to go below it. In other words it overrides the less stringent high level priority settings (such as task manager). The dnetc-1.00.ini config file only goes up to 9 which is still below normal on the priority # scale so it still gets over ridden by most other processes on your computer. To get full continuous access to the CPU you need to change the base priority to above the other CPU process (not just Boinc projects). Only system processes and a small few of other above normal (or high) processes can override the same base priority level setting if MOO is set to the same base level thus nearly continuous access to the CPU. There's also the I/O priority which raising will help when different processes have the same base priority. I hope I remembered all this right. DO NOT set Boinc CPU project themselves above normal or your system will become unresponsive and lock up. Even at normal your computer will be very sluggish. This is because CPU only projects use 100% (or near) CPU resources. Setting GPU apps to that higher setting works because they use so little percentage of CPU resources for it's needs but does prioritizes over CPU only project processes. That's what Process lasso will do (as well as Priority 1.2 app) change the deep low level base priority. So give it a try if nothing else works (or try it first) before going nuts over long run times.

I've used Prosses Lasso before but haven't in awhile, which Process do I raise the Priority of, the DNET Client or the Wrapper. I've raised the Wrapper for now to see what happens ...

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I've used Prosses Lasso before but haven't in awhile, which Process do I raise the Priority of, the DNET Client or the Wrapper. I've raised the Wrapper for now to see what happens ...

I just set them both to above but the DNET client is the important one. And set the I/O priority to high as well for both.

The dnetc-1.00.ini config file only goes up to 9 which is still below normal on the priority # scale so it still gets over ridden by most other processes on your computer.

Values of priority option doesn't correspond directly to the Windows priorities but rather are mapped internally by the D.Net Client for the thread priority used for the worker threads.

If all is well, D.Net Client will always set process priority class to idle. Normal threads will then get set to time critical thread priority, which corresponds to a priority 15 for an idle process priority class. Worker threads get normal priority (for our default priority=4), which corresponds to priority 4. Setting priority=9 bumps worker threads to highest priority, which is really priority 6 on a process with idle priority class. Yes, this is complicated, I know. :)

I'm actually not sure if the thread talking to GPU is considered a normal or a worker thread. I would hope it's normal but since changing priority helps people, it could very well be worker thread.

-w

I too have the same error message with the client 7.0.3.

I've used Prosses Lasso before but haven't in awhile, which Process do I raise the Priority of, the DNET Client or the Wrapper. I've raised the Wrapper for now to see what happens ...

I just set them both to above but the DNET client is the important one. And set the I/O priority to high as well for both.

I set the Client & Wrapper to Above Normal on all 4 Box's but it seems to have only have slightly increased the speed of the Wu's on 1 of the Box's ...

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I've used Prosses Lasso before but haven't in awhile, which Process do I raise the Priority of, the DNET Client or the Wrapper. I've raised the Wrapper for now to see what happens ...

I just set them both to above but the DNET client is the important one. And set the I/O priority to high as well for both.

I set the Client & Wrapper to Above Normal on all 4 Box's but it seems to have only have slightly increased the speed of the Wu's on 1 of the Box's ...

Try setting to high and keep I/O to high as well. Set Power Profile (for Moo files) to High Performance. Do you have 2 or more GPUs on any boxes? If so this may only help a little because of other issues that a lot of other ppl have with Moo. This isn't a cure all because everybodys setup if different. Another thing is I find that ATI/AMD drivers 11-6, 11-11c and 12-1 preview driver (I use currently) work best. Some older ones work good too. Never use 11-7 & 11-8 and avoid 11-9 & 11-10 even though they may work OK for some. Did you get better times with 1 core open? If not try that again with these settings. Could be that some may never get good consistent times with all cores running. May be just "one of those things".
Do you use Throttle? Setting max CPU % on it to 99%, 98%, 97% or even 95% can help, as well as reduce some crashes if you have those with any kind of regularity. This sets the CPU load % not the core % (like in Boinc settings) so it keeps the CPU from being peg max all the time and gives your computer some head room for load spikes (the cause of some crashes, especially OCed systems running Primegrid LLR WUs). Let me know how things go.

To Teemu, thanks for the clarification on the Dnet client priority scale and it's complex workings.

NeoMetal

I too have the same error message with the client 7.0.3.

MOST Projects have not adopted all the changes yet, this is still a Beta version.

I'm finding some odd behaviour with some workunits. On a 5850 the GPU load fluctuates every few moments between 56-97%, the Amps vary from 12-54A.

On a 4770 card it is very similar, and you can hear the fan speed up, slow down, speed up, slow down etc. It didn't do this a while ago.

I wonder if running 2 workunits at a time would help, and if so how would I do this?

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I iz also got icons!

I'm finding some odd behaviour with some workunits. On a 5850 the GPU load fluctuates every few moments between 56-97%, the Amps vary from 12-54A.

I got pretty much the same with the new boxes. Single card was ok, but the dual 5970 was a nightmare, bouncing around everywhere. It was the same whether or not it used crossfire. I*n the end I switched to MW temporarily because the other factor mixed in was the work unit size - they were still all over the place resulting in gross under-utilisation in terms of overall throughput - terrible frankly.

Keeping an eye on Moo every now and then with my main box, and if the WUs settle I'll switch back, but right now its just not a practical option for me.

Regards
Zy

I too have the same error message with the client 7.0.3.

Problem solved!
Now it works.
Merry Christmas to all